GOP presidential hopeful makes first stop of his Pennsylvania campaign in Lehigh Valley.

Allentown, Pa. — When Barack Obama visited the struggling Allentown Metal Works in December 2009, the factory's industrial landscape and its rugged workers made a perfect backdrop for the president to talk about his efforts to jump-start the economy.

On Thursday afternoon, its workers gone, its windows boarded up and its lot overgrown with weeds, the century-old building again made a perfect political backdrop.

This time it offered Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney a place to tear into the incumbent Democrat's record on the economy.

"This president came here and called this a symbol of hope," Romney said, standing before a chain link fence dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt. "It is a symbol of failure, failure of his economic policy. He's out of his depth. When it comes to getting the economy going, it's just not something he understands."

Obama visited Allentown Metal Works as part of a whirlwind tour of the Lehigh Valley. The debt-addled factory closed in January after years of financial struggles.

In a 10-minute appearance, Romney touted his business experience and pointed to the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate as evidence Obama's policies have failed. He ripped the president for not devoting enough energy to turning the economy around and vowed to make Obama a one-term president.

"The president ought to be in Washington meeting with Republicans, meeting with Democrats," said Romney, who is leading the GOP field in recent polls. "He shouldn't leave that town until he has an understanding of what it is going to take to get this economy going again and deal with this financial crisis. But he is here raising money for the campaign."

Obama was in Philadelphia for two political fundraisers Thursday. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and 2008 candidate for the GOP nomination, was also in Pennsylvania to raise campaign cash. He too headed to Philadelphia after Allentown.

The state is key in the 2012 race for the Oval Office, and the economy could be one of Obama's vulnerabilities.

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry reported in May that the state added 76,000 jobs, including 8,400 in manufacturing, in the last year.

But the state has lost 136,663 jobs, including 39,000 in manufacturing, since January 2009 when Obama took office, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Romney highlighted the job losses in a Web video released in advance of the visit to Allentown.

The decline of manufacturing is nothing new. Pennsylvania lost 220,200 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2008 while President George W. Bush was in office. Overall though, the state's economy added 160,723 jobs.

From 2003 to 2006 — Romney's term as governor — Massachusetts lost 34,500 manufacturing jobs, but added 49,656 total jobs, which was one of the lowest rates of growth in the country at the time, Democrats pointed out.

A relative moderate in the Republican primary field, Romney is the kind of candidate who could give Obama a battle in Pennsylvania in 2012, said Chris Borick, a political scientist at Muhlenberg College.

"At least at this stage of the game, you could consider Romney a candidate that should be very competitive in a general election in Pennsylvania, especially if the economy is stalled or limping along in the fall of 2012," Borick said.

Democrats, including Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and former Gov. Ed Rendell, came to Obama's defense.

"The Obama administration played no role in that plant closing and for Mr. Romney to use it as a backdrop for his short-term political game is a disservice to our city, its citizens, and really the entire Lehigh Valley," Pawlowski said.

Rendell called the event a "cheap shot," and said the stimulus pumped $31 billion into the state economy in the form of tax cuts and spending that helped preserve and create jobs.

Allentown Metal Works' closure in January ended 100 years of manufacturing at the 10th Street factory, but its more recent history was plagued with financial problems.

Montgomery County venture capitalist Ed Brill bought the business in 2005, vowing to make it a success story. But that company, BVI Precision Materials, defaulted on a loan and was taken over in 2008 by Allentown Metal Works, which is owned by two investment firms. At the time, it employed about 130 people.

Now Brill and Allentown Metal Works, which specialized in heavy-duty steel components used in bridge construction, power plants and the cement and mining industries, are engaged in a legal dispute over $4.7 million in debt incurred before the takeover.

Brill said he thinks Romney is a very bright person, but that it's hard to blame Obama for the company's demise. The U.S. has lacked an effective manufacturing policy for decades, he said.

"Manufacturing decline in this country has been going on for 20 years," Brill said. "It is not Republicans, it is not Democrats."